Product Review

Ray knelt in the doorway, as bullets smashed into the bricks and plaster around him, showering his immaculate black suit in dust. He slammed another clip into his MP5K and released the cocking handle with a satisfying 'click'. He smiled, in these situations it was good to have something fully automatic, and with the number of mooks somwhere in the late twenties, it’s only sensible to pack at least a bullet for each of them. Ray stood up as the gunfire hitting the doorway stopped. He peeped around the corner and quickly took note, 28 of them, almost the entire clip. Still, at least he’d have two rounds spare for what ever came next… he stepped out of the doorway and squeezed the trigger.

So why is the book called Golden Comeback?

Well, this is the source book for the good guys, the players – The Dragons. Of all the various factions in the secret war, only one of them truly fights for justice and freedom without the hope of personal gain, meet The Dragons. They are a mismatch of all-out-good-guys, reluctant heroes and knife-edge maniacs who just happen to be fighting the bad guys. The Dragons have done pretty well for themselves and managed to remain a thorn in the side to many of the less savoury factions.

This winning streak came to an end in Operation Killdeer. This was a routine mission for The Dragons, but after a vicious skirmish several of them lay dead and the rest were in hiding. To me ‘Golden Comeback’ is what the players are going to be. They are going to join The Dragons and take the fight back to the enemy, with gun-toting, fu-fighting, spell-chucking mayhem, heralding the comeback of The Dragons.

Ok, so what’s in the book?

Loads of stuff, so I’ll break it down. Firstly we learn about The Dragons. The book introduces most of the major characters and gives us a little background info on why each of them is fighting the secret war and what they hope to gain from it. Each character also has a short story, which adds a little more info to the history of The Dragons and helps the players get a feel for the faction.

Next up we have a section on improving your character. This ranges from tips to help you create a more believable hero (like personality and history), to building on how you play your character during the game. I particularly liked this last part, it gives an example of a situation you may get into during a game session, then explores how different character types will deal with it. This may prove helpful for some of the players out there who tend to keep playing themselves in a different body rather than actually taking on the persona the have created.

Chapter 3 is crammed with extra game goodness. We have new Shticks, new Fu, new Transformed Animal packages (yeah!), new Guns (mmm... guns), new Arcanoweird Devices (nice), Gadgets, new Sorcery, and two new character types. Some of the stuff isn’t as good as I’d come to expect from Atlas games and I can’t see any of my players using either of the new character types. But most of the content is well-written, well thought up and cries out to be used in the next game I run.

Chapter 4 has more game mechanic related content. There are additional rules for fighting, which my players have all enjoyed trying out on my poor mooks. They have also come up with a pretty decent set of rules for car chases. This is something I have always found slightly lacking in RPG’s (barring Mutant Chronicles and Blue Planet, which are very good). There are also stats and silhouette pictures for a selection of contemporary vehicles as well as some from the 2056 juncture.

Wow! It sounds packed… so you liked it, but do I need it?

I reckon the answer is YES! When I buy I new RPG, I always like to get the main rules, the screen and the primary sourcebook at the same time. The thinking behind the sourcebook is as follows. You make a game and you have some of the stuff that could have been in the rulebook but didn’t fit left over, then you notice a few changes you’d like to make, finally you talk to people who’ve been playing the game and they have some good ideas. Combine all this with the extra stuff you’ve thought of since the game came out and the extra background you've dreamed up and you usually have a damn fine book, which is a compulsory purchase and worth every penny.

The Dragons will need help to keep the forces of good thrashing bad-guy-butt in the secret war, this book is the answer... bow before it.

Also: Something of note I missed on my first read through the book, on the final page - a 2 page "For Brand New Roleplayers" was removed from the book to save space but you can get it from their website which can be found at www.atlas-games.com Well worth a read and it made me smile, so check it out.

Reviewed By Jon Simpson